Sky+ launches Suggestions and Smart Series Link features

Sky EPG sees second major overhaul of 2014

by Stuart Wright
Home AV News

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Sky+ launches Suggestions and Smart Series Link features
Sky is rolling out a batch of new features to their EPG from today.
Chief amongst them is a brand new recommendations engine, which provides suggestions of TV shows and movies that you might like based on recent recordings and downloads in your Sky+ Planner.

For example, if you have a recording of The Following in your planner, recommendations might include Luther, Hannibal, Criminal Minds and The Blacklist. Results offer up both ‘normal’ TV and on demand shows as viewing options.

Sky is also launching something they term Smart Series Link, which is like the old series link only now it remembers to record the next season, of a show, and all subsequent ones after that. That is how it should have been in the first place but credit to Sky for adding it, eventually, anyhow.

For sports fans, a new Sports tile has been added to the Homepage, providing quick access to all the live sporting events that are currently showing on any channel. Sky customers will also be able to see movie DVD cover art for Sky Movies On Demand and Sky Store, to pretty up the interface.

Luke Bradley-Jones, Sky’s Director of TV Products, said: "We know customers love the new Homepage as it puts catch-up, box sets and movies at the heart of their TV viewing. That’s why we’re introducing even more features to help discover more TV they really want to watch. Get recommendations for shows we think you’ll enjoy based on your recordings, and never miss a returning season ever again with Smart Series Link. It’s all part of our commitment to make Sky+ the ultimate entertainment experience.

Sky+ launches Suggestions and Smart Series Link features

The complete list of features being introduced from today:

Suggestions: customers will find shows that they might enjoy, based on recordings or downloads in their Planner.
Smart Series Link: customers will never miss the returning series with Smart Series Link, as it is now updated to remember to record all the future new series
DVD Cover Art: instantly-recognisable DVD cover art will be seen in the Sky Movies and Sky Store sections
Sports: a new tile for the homepage will be introduced showing all live sports on any TV channel at that moment in time and all the sports channels from the TV Guide
Combined SD and HD options: easily choose between HD & SD when downloading TV shows or movies from any on demand section.
HDMI One Touch: the Sky button on the remote now turns on the latest Sky+HD box and a compatible TV in one go from standby. It tunes the TV to the correct HDMI input if they’ve been using another device so there’s no need to pick up the other remote control.
Sky Store: customers can now access Sky Store from Sky Box Office.
Simplified Card Pairing: customers will now be able to easily pair their viewing card without calling Sky; it just takes one press of a button on the Sky remote.
Entertainment shows: the Lifestyle tab has been merged into the Entertainment tab in the TV Guide
Homepage images: will be updated on a regular basis to showcase the latest and best movies and TV shows.

These updates to the Sky+ homepage are the second tranche of major improvements this year following a major overhaul in March when On Demand and the Sky+ Planner were moved alongside channel listings as equal options, and a brand new enhanced Search function was launched. Since then, the number of searches has increased dramatically, now with around 1.6 million every day as customers take even more control over their TV viewing.

This software update is rolling out to customers starting from today, and will be available to over 8 million customers with compatible Sky+HD boxes by the winter this year.

And we never mentioned TiVo once!

You can see a video of the new features in action here: http://corporate.sky.com/skyviews/sky/were_making_sky_even_better_with_a_raft_of_new_features


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